
Europe: 1800 – 1900

"You have to dominate the material, not let the material dominate you."

Contemporary artist Xu Bing connects his art training in China's rural areas with Millet's passion and respect for the farmer and nature in this painting
Xu Bing on Jean-François Millet’s Haystacks: Autumn

Contemporary artist Enrique Chagoya discusses the transcendent meanings of Goya's etchings of Spanish society at the turn of the 19th century
Enrique Chagoya on Goya’s Los Caprichos

How do you make a sculptural monument—in stone—that captures the transitory, the fleeting aspects of modern life?
A moment’s monument, Medardo Rosso, Ecce puer ...

Fashion's power to reveal the nuances of political power, gender, and ethnicity.
Fashion and Politics in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s ...

Delacroix's painting is about much more than the Greek War for Independence—it is a universal statement about the cost of war.
The cost of war: Delacroix, Greece on ...

Daumier's Rue Transnonain stands alone for its brutal tone and unflinching commentary on a Parisian uprising that had occurred on April 13, 1834.
Daumier, Rue Transnonain

Gauguin and Laval's journey to Martinique is a lesser-known chapter in the history of nineteenth-century French painting.
Gauguin and Laval in Martinique

Everyone wanted to have a look at the cast of characters Frith created—their variety provides the modern viewer with a fascinating glimpse into Victorian life.
William Powell Frith, Derby Day

The Lady of Shalott is a powerful example of later Pre-Raphaelitism.
William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott

Learn more about this symbolist painter's enigmatic depictions of one of his favorite subjects—Salome.
Gustave Moreau, Salome

To fill the visual void, the westerner had to rely on his fantasies of harem life, for which opera libretti and novels offered, fortunately, enough material. For the photographer the same, of course, was also true.
Staging the Egyptian Harem for Western Eyes

Gauguin’s paintings of Brittany are, in the end, more fantasies than accurate images of an authentic peasant culture.
The Pont-Aven School and Synthetism

The painting mocks humanity, as well as human beliefs and institutions, both civic and religious.
James Ensor, Christ’s Entry into Brussels in ...

The Last of England is a poignant reminder of the journey made by millions of people during the 19th century.
Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England

Throughout his career, Hunt stayed close to the aesthetic of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in his attention to detail and insistence on narrative content.
William Holman Hunt, Isabella or the Pot ...

Delacroix created dramatic images with an intensity of color and expression that no one else could match.
Eugène Delacroix, an introduction

The distinctive qualities of Japanese art offered striking new approaches to modern artists developing alternatives to the Western tradition of naturalistic representation.
Japonisme

Art Nouveau artists and designers created a completely new style of decoration.
Art Nouveau

Symbolist artists embraced the spiritual significance of art while rejecting science and objectivity.